Baseball Buckeyes sweep Northwestern on the road

While exams loom, the Ohio State baseball team is passing every test thrown its way.

The Buckeyes (31-10, 12-3) won their sixth and seventh straight games on Sunday, completing a three-game sweep of the Northwestern Wildcats in Evanston, Ill.

OSU needed more than nine innings to complete the sweep however, as it won, 5-2, in 11 innings in the second game on Sunday.

Sophomore infielder Jalen Washington hit a one-out single in the top half of the 11th to score sophomore outfielder Troy Montgomery and junior outfielder Jake Brobst to break a 2-2 tie.

After Washington was caught trying to steal second, senior outfielder Pat Porter hit a solo home run off the scoreboard in right-center field to conclude the scoring.

Senior pitcher Trace Dempsey picked up the win for OSU, his ninth on the season. Dempsey proceeded senior starter Ryan Riga who tossed nine innings, giving up just four hits and two runs in the second game on Sunday.

In the first game at Rocky Miller Park on Sunday, the Buckeyes rallied behind sophomore starting pitcher Travis Lakins, who struck out nine Wildcats in just 6.2 innings pitched, to defeat Northwestern, 6-3.

Despite giving up eight hits in the same 6.2 inning span, Northwestern only scratched across two runs on Lakins as the Buckeye bats got going early.

Porter, who put the capper on the second game, started the first inning off with a no-out single to score Montgomery before redshirt-junior infielder Nick Sergakis and junior infielder Craig Nennig each drove in runs for the Buckeyes.

While he was needed for two full innings in the second game, Dempsey picked up his seventh save of the season in game one, striking out Wildcat sophomore outfielder Joe Hoscheit to end the matchup.

As of Sunday night, the Buckeyes are in third place in the Big Ten standings behind the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Illinois Fighting Illini.

The Buckeyes are set to welcome the first place Illini to Columbus on Friday for a three-game series, with first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. First pitch for Saturday’s game is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. with the series finale on Sunday set for 1:05 p.m.